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Unto the Ages: Chapter 142
🕑 Added 2024-12-23 12:53:55 +0000 UTCOver the next few days, Grud’s men and the four new Blood Ascendant war parties played a game of cat and mouse. As usual, half of Grud’s men led the four Blood Ascendant war parties on a wild goose chase or into ambushes led by Grud and the other half of his men, making sure to leave nobody behind to tell the tale of what was hunting them.
But sometimes, as thorough as Grud and his men tried to be, they were still susceptible to human error, especially when Grud was throwing people around with mana pulses. One such mana pulse sent a man that Grud did not see flying into the base of a tree, causing the snow accumulated on its branches to fall down on his unconscious form, burying and concealing him from the battle and subsequent slaughter of the combatants on the Blood Ascendant’s side.
When the man woke up freezing and dug his way out of the snow, he remembered what happened. As they were following the tracks of the unknown enemy they were chasing, attackers burst out of the snow around them and attacked.
He could not tell which tribe they came from because the attackers were clad in thick winter wear, but there was one prominent man among them. He was a giant among men, and he was wielding a spear he had only seen when visiting the Rock Claw Chiefdom for a biennial meet-up. It was a great spear that was one-third bone blade and two-thirds bone shaft, and there was only one person he had ever heard of or seen using such a weapon, and that was the chieftain of the Rock Claw Chiefdom, Grud. The size of the man fits the image of Grud too.
After searching the bodies nearby to see if anyone survived and finding none, the man ran back to the mine to pass on the information.
***
Tu’Shan, Blood Priest of the Blood Ascendant, was clutching his head in half panic and anger after chasing out the woman who was supposed to be servicing him.
He had just received news of who was killing his men from a man who survived the massacre of one of his Blood Elite groups by pure luck, and the news was the worst possible outcome that Tu’Shan could think of. Instead of a mindless beast or monster that could be dealt with by group hunting tactics, Grud, chieftain of the Rock Claw Chiefdom, was coming for him. Tu’Shan had seen Grud in person a few times during meet-ups and knew that the rumors he had heard about him were not as far-fetched as one might think rumors usually are.
After thinking about solutions to his problem, he realized one simple truth, he was warm in a well-defended mine with only one way in, and unlike the villages he heard of that Grud conquered, there were no walls to climb over to breach his stronghold, and as powerful as he was, he was only one man, all he needed to do was reinforce and lockdown the mine entrance to the point that even battering rams would be almost useless, and even if they tried to burn them out of the mine, the freezing wind should snuff that fire out before any real damage is done.
This made Tu’Shan’s plan simple, recall all his forces and wait for Grud to go away. Unlike regular sieges, the elements were on Tu’Shan’s side. There was no way they could live off the land due to everything being frozen, and there was only so long Grud and his men could survive in these frozen conditions without a more permanent and robust shelter.
Tu’Shan called out for one of his men and said, “Recall the Blood Elites and their men, and send men to cut down enough trees to build a strong and thick gate that covers the mine entrance from floor to ceiling.”
After giving out his instructions, all Tu’Shan could do was wait, so he might as well relax. He called the woman who was servicing him back into his room to fulfill her duty and relieve his stress.
***
On Grud’s side, Tu’Shan was somewhat correct in assuming that he and his men could not survive long-term out in the cold, but what he did not know was that Grud solved the problem of getting enough to feed his men.
To solve the food problem, Grud approached the Deep Lake tribe and asked them to supply food for him and his men. In exchange, Grud promised to send trade caravans their way. The extermination of the Blood Ascendants was just a freebie.
But in the end, the fact still remained that it would be better to get this problem with the Blood Ascendants finished as soon as possible because as much as they wanted vengeance against the Blood Ascendants for their wanton killing and taboo practices, being cold and away from their family was slowly but surely sapping the morale of the men and the same could be said about Grud himself. To quell his painfully blue balls, Grud had painted many trees and snow patches with his yellowish-white cum, and Grud did not find exposing his dick to the freezing wind fun in the least. If anything, this encouraged Grud to get this over and done with so he could go home and warm his dick inside his wives.
As he was receiving reports on enemy movements, one of the scouts ran up to Grud and said, “Chieften! The group I was watching had been called back to the mine, and they seemed to be building a gate at the mine entrance.”
Just as the man finished his report, another scout came running, only to report a similar report with the group he was watching. Not even an hour after the second scout reported in, the third scout came to report the same thing.
Grud stroked his beard as he thought about what the Blood Ascendants were planning. ‘Did they find out that it was me who was attacking them and retreat? I am pretty sure I killed everyone, and I am sure my men cannot be recognized. We are not dressed in any distinct way… but the upside is that the enemy is now all in one place; the downside is that there is only one way in, and we do not know if there are any escape routes.’
Grud spent a few minutes thinking up possible reasons as to why the Blood Ascendants had boxed themselves in the mines and how to combat the situation. After running multiple scenarios through his mind, the only solution he could come up with was to attack from the front and break down the gates. It was not like there were any other entrances that he knew of.
Making up his mind, Grud recalled his men and split them into three teams. The first team was the assault team that he would be in. The second team would be the backup for the assault team and would act as protection for the assault team in case they were ambushed. They would also serve as a backup if the assault team needed more men. The last and biggest team’s job was to scour the surroundings and look out for any escape routes that Grud was sure were there because his scouts reported there was no smoke coming out from the mine entrance. Grud would bet good money that they were burning something inside the mine to keep warm.
Once preparations were done, they moved out.
When they came close to the Blood Ascendant’s mine, there was no use in being subtle because there was no cover big or numerous enough to hide Grud and his men. This gave the Blood Ascendants who were working outside the mine enough time to run back inside the cave to warn the others and shut the gate behind them.
***
Inside the mine, things were chaotic, with the three remaining Blood Elites giving conflicting orders. Two of them, who were high on Spirit’s Blood and felt like gods walking among mortals, wanted to leave the cave to face Grud in battle, tear out his throat, and drink the strength from the blood of such a renowned figure. The only Blood Elite who rejected the plan was the oldest among the Blood Elites, and even though he was also high on Spirit’s Blood, he had actually seen Grud in action when he was young, unblooded, and on the warpath against the four big villages. Therefore, he and his men were the only ones piling boulders behind their gate, while the other two Blood Elites and their men shouted and threatened about things coming to blows.
It was only when the Blood Priest showed up and shouted for silence that everyone calmed down. The Blood Priest supported the idea of piling boulders at the gate, but he also convinced the other two hot-blooded Blood Elites to let the fight happen in the tunnels, where numbers matter little and they had the home-ground advantage.
Soon, they were all working together under the Blood Priest’s instruction. Boulders were stacked, barricades placed, and arrows, spears, and shields were brought to the front in preparation for what the Blood Priest hoped would not come.
When the boulders were stacked as deep as a man's height and the barricades behind them were almost done, they heard and felt the sound of the first strike on the gate. It was a hearty and solid sound of impact on wood.
But what really freaked everyone out was that with just the second impact, the sound of impact on stone could be heard, and the few loose stones on the boulder pile cluttered to the floor.
This let them know that their gate, which was two logs thick, had been cut through in two strikes, and they did not have long before facing their enemy.
As those in the mine entrance scrambled to finish their preparations, the scent of anticipation and fear filled the air. To the young, who were in the majority, they had heard of the mighty chieftain of the Rock Claw Chiefdom and his deeds, but that was intellectual knowledge. They did not truly fear him; in their drug-addled minds, they placed Grud in the same category as monsters that sometimes attacked their tribes, dangerous but killable.
The minority older generations who had gone to war in the Newlands knew better and prepared to sell their lives dearly. They let the young glory-hungry fools crowd to the front while those who knew better stood back.
Soon after the first few blows at their blocked entrance, there were no longer any sounds of wood being hacked apart. Now, there were the steady and repeated sounds of a pickaxe hitting stone, but many times louder.
Eventually, with a crack of a stone being hit, one of the boulders touching the ceiling was hit, sending it flying into the tunnel and hitting one of the Blood Ascendants in the head, killing him on the spot.
“Shoot through that hole!” one of the Blood Elites shouted, and those wielding bows obeyed, sending arrows through the hole and getting surprised sounds and shouts from the other side.
That was when shockwaves of force started smashing against what remained of the stacked boulders, sending the mid-air arrows flying back from whence they came.
Pulse after pulse of shockwaves hit the stacked boulders, dislodging them and sending the smaller ones flying into the defending Blood Ascendants. When the shockwaves cleared the stacked boulders, there was only the silhouette of a giant of a man with a spear standing at the mine entrance.
Even though all the Blood Ascendants in the tunnel were not mana-sensitive, they could feel pressure pushing down on them. Those who had been on the wrong side of a hunt before knew this feeling of a predator bearing down on them, ready to strike.
Those who did not know the feeling panicked and changed the silhouette, and the carnage began.
